'Modern Warfare' trailer: Does Washington burning go too far?

Some say the images of destruction on US soil are too much for a post-9/11 audience.

Infinity Ward/Screenshot

In a scene from the trailer for "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2/Infamy," Washington D.C. is shown under attack.

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October 5, 2009

By Andrew Heining

The scenes are familiar enough to even the casual gamer: tanks rumble by, choppers pass overhead, exchanging gunfire with troops on the ground; explosions erupt left and right, revealing the grimacing faces of soldiers fighting a faceless enemy.

But in the upcoming "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" one thing stands out: the gallant mansion reduced to rubble doesn't belong to some crazed separatist dictator hellbent on all kinds of nefarious acts. Instead, it's the White House. The scenes of post-apocalyptic scenes of carnage play out not in some fictional town in eastern Europe, but in Washington D.C. itself.

The game's trailer, which debuted to a national audience tuned into Sunday night's Steelers-Chargers NFL game, has racked up close to 200,000 views since its posting on YouTube Sunday, and reports have it that more than a million have pre-ordered the game.

Does the game go too far? Is it offensive?

Many on game forums are quick to point out that this is not the first time the US capital has been destroyed on-screen (remember 1997's "Independence Day?" Little green men made kindling of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue). And with what's coming out of the gaming industry these days (Grand Theft Auto IV, anyone?) is this any worse? Maybe not. But this is one of the first times such striking imagery has surfaced since 9/11, when the idea of widespread destruction on US soil was suddenly thrust into reality.